White Hex – Heat 12″ EP

WHITE HEX are a self-described “tropical-goth” band from Melbourne, Australia. The duo is made up of Jimi Kritzler and Tara Green who met in Australia and lived in an “decrepit old house for neighborhood criminals, junkies, scumbags and teenagers.”

After learning this, it’s not much a surprise where this music is coming from. On top of that, for those of you who don’t know, Jimi Kritzler’s main band is Slug Guts which helps explain some of the subtly discontented snarl that comes through in these brooding tracks. Granted, we’re missing most of the punkier side that comes along with Slug Guts, but then we’d be pretty much talking about the same band. Instead, White Hex employs some different tactics, maintaining a generally minimal sound with a drony edge and plenty of gloomy, metallic guitar textures that wash over these songs and swallow them whole.

Take the opener “Stranger Love,” where we pretty much see all of this happening at once. Tight, springy bass lines drive the song from the bottom up, leaving plenty of room for the cold, dark guitars to slither out from the shadowy depths. Almost immediately the troubled tension is obvious as this dirgy drag unfolds, leaving us with plenty of bent and refracting guitar shards to close out the track. Following this, “Holiday” opens with a vengeful blast of guitar heat, hereby shoving us into another fiery arrangement of these pulsing guitars. Another memorable arrangement comes in the hypnotic “Nothing Comes,” which swirls with an evilly sweltering guitar hook that creeps with caution. Now listen to these tracks below to get a real dose of the White Hex sound for yourself.

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